Scrambles

2012-09-30 Ship's Prow (950m)

Kevin and I have had this peak on our to-do list for several years. There was a friendly debate going on between the two of us about whether it would be easier to go up the back side (and down the obvious cliff band between "Ship's Prow Mountain" and the actual "prow" of the ship), or up the front side (crashing through the bushes and up the bowl, eventually contouring around to the right onto the "prow" ridge). I thought the back side would prove impossible, and Kevin thought the front side would be impossible. Being the bigger man, I decided we'd try Kevin's way first. This way I'd be able to tell him "I told you so!" when we had to go home without our peak in-bag.

Because we're getting old and lazy, and because we'd already walked it a bunch of times and found it quite boring, we hauled our bikes to the Ha-Ling parking lot and rode them along the canal following a GPS waypoint that would put us in the right ballpark.

We didn't know if there was going to be anywhere to stash our bikes, but it turns out there was a nice wooded area close to the access road. I don't recall whether we bothered to even lock the bikes, since we expected this to be a pretty low-traffic area. One good thing about having a $30 bike is that I'm glad to take risks with it that would make me cringe if it was a $1000 bike. Kevin's pink and black beauty was there alongside mine. Let's just say THAT bike would be safe left parked, unlocked, at night, downtown, in New York. I'm hard on Kevin for his pink bike, but my reasoning is that hey, he's got a pink bike! The jokes write themselves! Sorry Kev!

Anyway, once we had the bikes stashed, we started slogging up through the bush. No trail on this scramble for the most part. I led most of the way up, keeping the ridge in sight as well as I could.

Once we left the trees Kevin and I could see some goats higher up. They were wandering down looking for food, and didn't notice us right away. Once they did, we were close enough for some decent photos. Once the little one noticed us, he barrel-assed down the hill past us, getting some wicked air in a couple places. I managed to snap one pic with him in mid-leap! I didn't like scaring them, but wasn't about to go too far out of my way to avoid it either, if you know what I mean. We were on a mission!

I gained the ridge before Kevin, and checked my email (good cell reception up there!) while I was waiting. This was at the first crux! Looking at it from the top, it looked pretty gross. Steep with loose rock on hard-pack, pretty much a guarantee of a wipeout for one or both of us.

Turns out it was way better than it looked, as I was able to avoid the "ditch" in the middle entirely by climbing down the rocks to the skier's right/climber's left of it. Kevin thought that was unnecessary, and came down the ditch. To each his own I guess!

With the first crux well-handled, we zipped over to the Ship's Prow Mountain summit and had a bit to eat. We took some time looking for a way to get down the very substantial cliff band. There were a few cracks near the top that probably would have been do-able if we'd been stuck. Terrifying and quite possibly deadly, but probably do-able.

My idea at this point was to traverse further along the ridge to where the cliff band petered out (quite a ways!), then get down onto the scree underneath, and traverse back onto the prow ridge. Kevin agreed that we didn't seem to have many options, but that we should keep an eye out for better cracks to scramble down along the way.

We passed 2-3 ugly cracks, then came across one that looked too easy to be true. Hands-in-your-pockets easy. Grandma's staircase easy. We walked down with our hands out of our pockets just in case, and found ourselves just a few meters below the prow ridge. How awesome indeed!

The prow ridge consists of several sand-dune formations in a row. Each of them looks easy to climb up, but the climb down on the other side remains a mystery until you get to their tops and discover an easy walk down the other side of each of them.

We got to the ACTUAL Ship's Prow, the one that you can see jutting out from the highway, had a bite to eat, snapped several photos, scoped out a few routes for the future, and headed back.

We decided that walking up the front side to get to the prow ridge would definitely have worked, though I'm sure the slog through the trees at the bottom, and the extra elevation gain from not starting at 1650+ meters at the Ha-Ling parking lot, would have made it a far long day. But do-able! Told you so! Never mind that your route was better!

We got back to the Ship's Prow summit, and Kevin uttered the words everyone who spends time in the mountains dreads to hear: Let's go down another way!!

Since I always like a challenge, I agreed that it sounded like an excellent idea, and we proceeded to traverse further along the ridge (away from the crux). We dropped down in the rather large, rock-strewn gully where every rock was precariously perched on the others, eagerly awaiting an intrepid explorer to step on them causing half of them to shift crazily underfoot, and the other half to go careening down the gully at break-neck speed.

We stuck together to avoid hitting each other (too hard) with rocks, and eventually made it past the dangerous part, only to find ourselves in a narrower version of the same gully littered with fallen trees, root-balls, shrubs, and twisted knots of branches. We didn't make as good a time as we thought we might. It wasn't a BAD route but if you're looking to make good time on the way down, my recommendation would be to go back the same way you came up. Unless, of course, you came up the gully in the first place. Then you should take the other way down for sure!

We got to the bottom, found our bikes, trundled them back out to the road and proceeded to pat each other on the back verbally for coming up with the idea of riding to the trail head. We were back at the parking lot in just a few minutes! Awesome!

Date: 09/30/2012

Owner: Gallery Administrator

Size: 52 items

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Slogging up the hill through the bush.

Date: 09/30/2012

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Not almost there...

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True summit of Lawrence Grassi.

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Above the tree-line

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Someone is spying on us.

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hello

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who/what are you?

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We're outta here!

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Run, Forrest!

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wicked air!

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The gendarmes on the Big Sister

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Made it to the ridge -- prow is extreme left

Date: 09/30/2012

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Lawrence Grassi's Nipple

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This is not the way down.

Date: 09/30/2012

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The Crux!

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The Crux from the bottom. I climbed down the rock in the center.

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Kevin, there's a mountain stuck to your butt!

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Looking back at the crux -- looks more imposing than it actually is!

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Ship's Prow Summit! High point of the day, but the "up" isn't quite done.

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Nipple inspector Kevin reporting for duty!

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Kevin on Grandma's Staircase

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Looking back at the cliff band we just avoided

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Ship's Prow straight ahead!

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Canmore

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Just about there

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Three Sisters!

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Getting very close now!

Date: 09/30/2012

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Kevin standing on the edge of the world/prow

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The next crux if we were to keep walking.

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The trees we'd have to hike through on my route (yuck)

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The pass between the Three Sisters and Grassi (range)

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Can you see the shadow of Kevin waving?

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The bowl at the end of my front-side route. Do-able, but yuck.

Date: 09/30/2012

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Kevin climbing Grandma's stairs

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Kevin coming down the bowling alley. The normal descent would be to the left, above the cliff.